Chinese Forced Abortion Opponent Collapses From Home Detention

The leading campaigner against forced abortions in China has collapsed outside his home because he has been repeatedly beaten and denied medical care after local population control officials have sentenced him to home confinement for exposing a massive forced abortion campaign.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a human rights group that shines a light on forced abortions and sterilizations in the Communist country, informed LifeNews today that it has received credible reports that Chen Guangcheng is seriously ill, and other members of his family are languishing as well.

According to one report, Chen’s second elder brother died of stomach cancer on the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival on January 23. Chen, his wife and mother were not allowed to attend the funeral. A few days later, according to a report by the human rights group CHRD, Chen was seen to take a few steps in the courtyard and one observer said, “He looked pale and moved unsteadily. Only a few steps out of the door he fainted and fell to the ground.”

Chen’s wife, Yuan Weijing, also was recently spotted leaning against the interior wall of their courtyard, looking “skinny” and one observer said, “it seemed that it was difficult for her to move her waist.” Guards took her back into her home after seeing local residents noticing her frail condition.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, said Chen’s mother, in her eighties, became ill during the Spring Festival and has not recovered. She formerly went out to purchase food for the homebound family, but said, “Since the Spring Festival, Chen’s mother has not come out any more. No one has been seen to send food to Chen Guangcheng’s home. It is hard to imagine how the family is surviving.”

Littlejohn says Chen’s daughter, Kesi, has also been ill with a high fever.

Reports from CHRD indicate the security surrounding Chen’s family has increased significantly. There are now seven cameras monitoring Chen’s home and eight guards have moved into the family courtyard, in addition to the twenty guards that surround the house. Security vans now block the alley leading to Chen’s home.

“For those who live very close to Chen Guangcheng’s home, when they go home, they have to ask the guards to open the door of the van and let them go through the vehicle, just like passing the security,” Littlejohn said.

The Chinese Communist Party also sent an additional 200 guards to watch Chen’s family for two weeks after his brother’s death, to prevent them from visiting his grave.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s continuing brutality towards a poor, blind, sick and innocent man is cowardly and depraved. Chen Guangcheng is a hero, for China and for the world – a man of towering courage and valiant endurance. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers demands his unconditional release and immediate medical treatment,” Littlejohn said.

Chen was arrested for exposing the systematic and massive use of forced abortion and sterilization in Linyi City in 2005. A blind attorney, Chen told the Washington Post about more than 10,000 people who were victimized by forced abortions and sterilizations.

Bale never got the chance. He was roughed up and forced away from Chen’s village, according to a CNN report. Bale was in Beijing, China for the premier of “The Flowers of War,” a drama about the 1937 Rape of Nanjing and he decided to break away from the official visit to try to find Chen, who exposed massive campaigns of forced abortions and sterilizations of thousands to the western world several years ago.

Chen was eventually imprisoned for nearly four years on bogus charges and he has repeatedly been beaten and attacked by family planning officials enforcing the nation’s one-child policy since his release. Reports surfaced in recent weeks that Chen had been killed and then new reports claimed he was still alive.

About his attempt to visit Chen, Bale stated, “I’m not brave doing this . . . This was just a situation — I can’t look the other way.”

Christian Bale is not the only one who has focused attention on Chen Guangcheng. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke have both recently spoken on his behalf.

Littlejohn said the flow of Chinese citizens to visit Chen despite the risk of beatings and detention has increased and the Chinese and international “Sunglasses” campaigns, have raised the visibility of Chen’s case as well.